


Aim for the Chopping Block

by Elora_Lane



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Garcy friendship, Pre-Relationship, Swearing, chopping wood, garcy, post season two finale, rufus is already alive, writing warm up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 14:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20292958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elora_Lane/pseuds/Elora_Lane
Summary: In her frustration, Lucy is trying to chop wood- but she's not the best at it. Flynn gives her some good advice. As always, it's about more than just the task at hand.





	Aim for the Chopping Block

**Author's Note:**

> A one-word prompt: Axe
> 
> This is basically a drabble...
> 
> Thanks, Kissedbydragonfire for being kind enough to help!
> 
> Also, Rufus is already saved in this. and Wyatt left the bunker to go find Jess... Before a bomb went off.

Lucy’s going crazy. 

She’s been stuck here, in 1822, for exactly two weeks with Rufus, Jiya and Flynn. She can’t stand it... Not knowing the changes to history that are happening. Is the present at all the way she left it? Did Denise and Mason get out alive? Where the hell did Wyatt disappear to before the bomb went off in the bunker? 

She tries not to care... 

but he told her he loved her... 

and then he left her. 

_ Again. _

So Lucy swings the ax as straight as she can, and barely chips the log before it goes tumbling to the ground. It's just like everything else... all passion, no progress. Setting it back up, she tries again, this time, she imagines its Emma’s head. Emma who brought Jessica back. Emma who killed her mom. Emma who killed Rufus. 

“Fuck you, Emma!” she yells before she brings the ax down with a rush of wind around it. 

She doesn‘t even hit the log. 

And now, the ax is stuck, and Lucy can’t get it out. 

“God. Damn...” she grunts putting first one, then two feet on the chopping block as she tries to lift the ax up. 

_“Lucy!” _

That familiar accented voice yells from somewhere behind her, and she feels herself jump, and then fall into the snow. In her bewilderment, she just lies there, staring up at the grey Michigan sky, as tears start to sting her eyes. 

Why does everything have to be _so hard?_

And why does Flynn have to be there every time she does something embarrassing? 

The historian wipes her tears, and then starts to get up, when a rather long square hand comes into view, “Please? Let me help you?” he asks, his voice all softness. 

They hadn’t talked in recent weeks... not since Lucy had tried to come to him about Wyatt’s declaration. She had tried to tell Flynn she didn’t say anything back... but he just told her he was happy for her and shut the door in her face. 

He was just another person who had disappeared, and every time she looked at him, she just wanted to cry. 

She couldn’t even hate the bastard- no. She just wanted to remember what it was like when he held her in the alleyway. She just wanted to ask about his chest wound, make sure he was okay... 

But, he made it clear that he didn’t want that. 

Reluctantly, she placed her hand in his, and he practically lifted her up and out of the snow, “How much of that did you see?” 

“Just enough to know that you need to learn how to use an ax... you could have sent that flying and damaged the Lifeboat even further,” he teased. 

“Pfft. _Right._ Like that’s possible,” Lucy dead-panned, “We’ll need a miracle to get it going again... one more powerful than the two we already have with us.” 

“Well said,” Flynn concedes, as his lips quirked upward and into a smile, “how are you holding up, Lucy?” 

“What, now you care?”

She immediately feels shame burning on her face when her question comes out sharp and angry. 

_“I do care, Lucy,”_ he says, and then, in little more than a whisper, he adds, “I’ve always cared.” 

And shit, that does something to her. Turning toward him, she observes his tired and worn down features. They are all just so sick of this... Sick of the fighting, sick of the death, sick of the pain. His arm is still in the sling, but he’s been using it here and there, “Are you worried about Wyatt?” 

The question seems to come out of nowhere, and Lucy feels like it might be a trap. Dusting off her pants, she goes back to the ax, “Could you?” she motions to it. Flynn quickly unsticks it, and Lucy resumes her motion, “I’m no more worried about him than I am anyone else, Garcia.” 

She doesn’t know exactly why she says his first name- she's never really done that. But she’s wanted to, and right now, she might as well because she isn’t so sure that they are ever getting out of this, “I just hope he found his wife and child, and that it was all he hoped it would be.” 

Lucy begins to swing the ax but pauses when Flynn clears his throat. 

_“What?”_ she asks, rather aggressively. 

“You should aim for the chopping block, not the wood.” 

_ “Why?” _

“The chopping block... if you aim for that, it'll go through the wood. If you aim for the log, you’ll chip it, skim it, go around it... you won’t hit in the middle, because you don’t have an endpoint to look at.” 

_ Well, the man seems to know what he's talking about. _

So, she does that. And she manages to hit the log where she wanted to- and it slices right now the middle, “Oh my god! I did it! Did you see that?” 

“Yeah, I did,” Flynn says, a warm smile spreading on his face, “Good job, Dr. Preston.” 

Much to her surprise, Flynn moves forward and places another log on the block, “Now... Tell me why you're upset, then you can slice this one, too...” 

And that’s how they do it, that’s how they clear the air little by little and talk through the last several months. Slowly but surely, they chip away at the big picture and make through to the other side.

Lucy realizes then that she had forgotten what it could be like, talking through her issues, and not just hiding them from herself and everyone else.

Sometime later, they are carrying the heavy wood back to the cabin... and yet, Lucy feels lighter than she has in the last six months. 


End file.
